Box Score

ATHENS, Ohio – Sophomore Emilee Hill recorded her first career triple double as the Colonels opened the Green & White Invitational presented by Athens County Convention & Visitors Bureau with a 3-0 victory over Oakland on Friday.
 
EKU (8-3) won by scores of 27-25, 25-22 and 26-24.
 
Hill finished with 11 kills, 18 digs and 19 assists.  The setter from Yorktown, Indiana also had three blocks and one ace.
 
EKU jumped out in front 9-3 to start the match.  A kill from Hill followed by a pair of Oakland attack errors capped a run of three straight to finish the fast start.  Consecutive kills from Sarah Mitchell and AG Vandagriff pushed the margin to 12-5.  The Golden Grizzlies clawed all the way back to tie the match at 24-24 on back-to-back aces from Tyler Linkhart.  Oakland tied it again at 25-25 before the Colonels scored the final two points on two attack errors.
 
Oakland scored the first three points of the second set, however EKU scored six of the next seven.  Two straight errors from the Golden Grizzlies put the Colonels on top 6-4 and EKU led the rest of the set.  With a 1-point edge, 23-22, Hill recorded two straight kills to end the set and give her team a 2-0 lead.
 
The Golden Grizzlies started the third set hot as well, this time jumping ahead 10-5 and then 11-6 on a kill from Ainsley Guse.  A 9-3 run turned the tide for the Colonels.  Two errors from Oakland and an ace from Madi Tolzman gave EKU a 15-14 lead.  Neither team led by more than two the rest of the way.  Oakland took set-point, 24-23, on a kill from Gentry Brown.  Mitchell tied it again with a kill and Vandagriff gave the Colonels match-point with a kill.  Another attack error ended the set, 26-24, and the match.
 
Vandagriff tied for the match-high with 12 kills, in 24 attempts.  She made just one error for a .458 attack percentage.  Mitchell had nine kills, only one error, 12 digs and one block.  Paige Wagers finished with eight blocks and five kills.  Josie Schmitendorf led the team with 22 digs.
 
EKU made only eight errors in the match and hit .312 as a team.  The Colonels had a 9-4 edge in blocks.  Oakland made 17 attack errors and hit .216 in the match, but the Golden Grizzlies served up seven aces.
 
Brown had 12 kills for Oakland (3-8).
 
EKU will face Liberty on Saturday at 10:30 a.m. before closing out the event against host Ohio on Saturday at 7 p.m.  The match Ohio will air live on ESPN+.  The match against Liberty will be shown live on YouTube.